The Code

“Rap star Corey “C-Murder” Miller was convicted of killing one of his fans after after a fight broke out at a crowded nightclub. Chris Anderson and Fatima Silva have been called by C-Murder’s family to uncover the truth.”

Chris and Fatima speak with Miller’s ex-wife, Dionne, and daughter, Alexis, who have been fighting to free Miller for 15 years. They said he was a veteran, an army medic. Chris says, “I would’ve never known that Corey Miller, C-Murder, was in the military. I would’ve never known that Corey Miller, C-Murder, was a loving and caring father, or that he was a husband…”

Miller’s ex-wife says the police talked to over 100 people at the club that night, and nobody said that he (a well known artist) did it. She said their description of the shooter did not match Corey. They said the shooter was dark-skinned and 5’10 or shorter. Miller is lighter and 6’4. There was a necklace that was allegedly ripped of the victim by the shooter, but the DNA on it didn’t match Miller. There were only two witnesses, whom they believe cut deals with the prosecution. Someone else confessed to the murder but wasn’t allowed to testify. Miller’s daughter says she and her father always talk about the day he comes home.

Fatima and Chris divide up the investigation. Chris looks into the police work, while Fatima checks out the legal stuff.

Fatima says it doesn’t make sense to her for a famous rapper to risk everything to shoot a kid. She goes to talk to Richard “Fiend” Jones, a fellow artist on Miller’s label who was close to him. “Fiend” said Corey was “good people...hella fun”. Fatima brought up how the label promoted drugs and violence and asked if Corey got caught up in it. “Fiend” says their label put out things they saw in their neighborhoods, and he doesn’t believe Corey got caught up in that lifestyle. He said that Corey wasn’t perfect, but he wouldn’t commit murder and risk losing his family and career.

Chris goes to see an independent forensic specialist, Dr Pamela Marshall, to see if the DNA on the necklace would have helped Miller. She said she reviewed the report and Miller was excluded as a DNA donor of the bracelet. She said if Miller grabbed the necklace quickly, was wearing gloves, or just washed his hands, it may not have left any DNA samples.

Fatima wondered if Miller’s was so famous, why didn’t anyone identify him as the shooter by name. She goes to see an independent eyewitness expert, Sean Layne, PhD. He said, “People are much better at being able to identify either people who are famous or people that they’re familiar with. But on the other hand, you can imagine that people might have been scared to indicate that C-Murder was the actual perpetrator in this case, because there might be retribution of some sort.” He says a lot of weight can be put on an eyewitness’ testimony, especially if it’s the sole piece of evidence, and it can lead to wrongful convictions.

He has some students joining them for what they think is a demonstration about school safety, but it was really an experiment that shows eyewitness memory can be unreliable. While Dr Layne introduces himself to the class, a hooded man runs into the classroom and “steals” a laptop. He then asks the class to give a description of the hooded man. Everyone in the class gave a different description, and none of them were correct. Dr Layne said in Miller’s case, eyewitness testimony isn’t credible.

Chris says the fact someone else confessed is a big help in the case, but it’s not uncommon for somebody to take the rap for someone famous. Chris speaks on the phone with Juan Flowers, the man who confessed to Steve Thomas’ murder and is currently serving time for another crime. He tells Chris that he was not the shooter. He said he lied to derail the trail, Chris wants to know if he’s trying to derail his investigation. Flowers says the kid was just rapping and someone hit him. He said that he didn’t really see the fight itself but knew Corey wasn’t apart of it. That’s when a gun was fired, and everyone ran outside. Juan said the shooter got into the car with Corey, the shooter threw the gun over the Mississippi River bridge. Chris asked if he was offered him his freedom in exchange for the truth about that night, but Flowers said he couldn’t snitch.

Fatima and Chris get together to compare notes. Chris talks about how there’s no evidence in this case. Fatima says she’s going to talk to the witnesses and asks Chris what to look for. Chris says to look for how well their stories match up, he also says he’s going to talk to Corey. Fatima says if Corey was apart of the fight, he could be culpable for felony murder. Chris believes Corey at least knows who the shooter was if it wasn’t him and believes the actual shooter should be held accountable.

Chris talks to Corey. He doesn’t believe Miller was involved in the murder, but he wants to know if he was involved with the fight. If he was involved in the fight, that means he’s accessory to murder. If that’s the case, Chris doesn’t believe he can help him. Corey said, “I wasn’t trying to be a gangster or a gangster rapper.”

Corey talks about how he had no idea that Thomas was even there or that he was even rapping. He says that night seemed normal to begin with until the fighting and shooting started, and everyone was just trying to get out of the way. Chris asked if Corey knew anyone who was involved in the fight, but Corey said he didn’t notice. Miller thinks the was arrested for the murder so it would become news and upgrade their career. Chris didn’t buy that. Corey said the two witnesses were just making stuff up for “15 minutes of fame”. Corey said he won’t say anything about anybody, he said “not even to save my own soul”. Chris said, “Your kids are serving time, they are right alongside you… If you had any part to do with this, you don’t have to tell me. Honestly, you don’t. But tell your daughters. They are still gonna love you no matter what.”

Fatima goes to talk to the witnesses, Darnell and Kenny, the reason Miller was convicted. She said help her figure out if they could help Corey. Darnell said he pulled Corey away from the fight and tried to calm him down, but he went back to the fight. That’s when he heard the gunshot, but he knew for sure Corey didn’t have a gun. Kenny said there were about 4 or 5 people beating up Steve Thomas, who was just laying there. Then he heard the shot. Kenny said he say the shooter, and he knew it wasn’t C-Murder. Kenny said Corey did it in hopes of getting out of serving time himself, but he’s recanting now. Kenny also said, “Snitches don’t live long.”

Chris and Fatima meet with Dionne and Alexis to discuss their findings.

Chris said that even though the necklace doesn’t have Corey’s DNA on it, it doesn’t help or hurt his case. Then he talks about his conversation with Juan Flowers who claims he made up his confession “to derail the trial” and now claims a member of Corey’s group shot and killed Steve Thomas then threw the gun in the Mississippi River. Chris said that it would make Corey an accessory to this murder, but he said Juan’s story wasn’t credible.

Fatima asks Alexis if she ever questioned her father about the murder, and she said she never felt the need to. Dionne said Corey made it seem he was just at the club when it happened. Fatima talks about the eyewitness expert who also believes the testimonies aren’t credible. Then she mentions the witnesses and shows apart of the video of the interview. She said it could open the door for another trial, but they’ll need evidence.

Chris has trouble believing a jury would convict Corey based on those two witnesses. Fatima adds the witness who’s recanting his testimony, “What are we left with? A weak case that just got weaker.” She and Chris think there are a lot of injustices that occurred. Fatima says if Corey was apart of the fight, there could have been charges. If Corey help toss out the weapon, he could also be charged with accessory.

Chris says Corey claims neither he nor a member of his group killed Steve Thomas, and he shows the video where Corey says he won’t tell the truth to save himself.

Chris says, “We could get behind this case, and we could hire an investigator to track down some of these leads, but we can’t do that if the person we’re fighting for is not even fighting for himself… Corey Miller is a very good father. He wants to help. It’s C-Murder that’s the problem… You (daughter) could be that change. You could be the catalyst to that change.”

On this case, Fatima added: "It was not a unanimous verdict. The verdict was 10 Guilty, 2 Not Guilty. Louisiana requires only 10 of 12 jurors to come to the same conclusion about a defendant's guilt, unless the case involves the death penalty. Louisiana is the only state in the nation where a defendant can be sentenced to life without parole as a result of a conviction by a non-unanimous jury.  This is problematic in, depending on the racial makeup of the jury, it can lead to more guilty verdicts against blacks and poor whites. There were also allegations that some of the jurors were being pressured to vote a certain way. Bottom line, it wasn't a unanimous verdict."

There isn't an episode of "Reasonable Doubt" showing next Wednesday July 4. Please join us Wednesday July 11.

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